Britain has publicly blamed the Russian government for a cyber attack which targeted Ukraine and spread across Europe last year.

The NotPetya attack’s primary targets were the Ukrainian financial, energy, and government sectors but it was designed to spread further and affected other European and Russian firms in June 2017.

Ukraine has been locked in a simmering conflict with Russian-backed separatists since Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014.

Foreign minister for cyber security Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon said the UK’s decision to identify the Kremlin as responsible to the attack underlines the fact the Government will not tolerate “malicious cyber activity”.